A minimum three year administration period for all of the construction union branches and a lifetime ban on criminal officials have been secured to pass laws cracking down on the CFMEU.

Labor’s laws giving the minister the power to put the construction and general division of the union into administration have secured the backing of the opposition after stalling in the Senate.

The administration period can last up to five years and will need the recommendation of the administrator to end it.

The opposition held out support as it called for an explicit donation and political campaigning ban during administration outlined in the law and for the administrator to front a Senate committee.

It has agreed to pass the bill after Labor provided a letter from the administrator saying no money would be spent on political campaigning or donations and for the Fair Work Commission head Murray Furlong to front the committee instead.

The government has raised concerns a legislated donations ban could be challenged in the High Court.

Opposition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said she believed her amendment would have overcome any constitutional issues but was prepared to accept the letter’s assurance.

“That is possibly the most significant part of what we wanted,” she told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Once the legislation passes the Senate, it will need to be ticked off by the government-controlled lower house.

The construction division won’t immediately be placed into administration, with the minister needing to jump through some regulatory hoops.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt said the industry needed an effective union to represent workers.

This is hard, dangerous work in construction,” he told ABC radio.

“But they need one that’s clean and free from the constant allegations of organised crime, bikies, violence on site that we see surrounding this union.”

Building groups have been lobbying both sides to pass the legislation, arguing each day without external oversight is another day of delays at affected construction sites.

“I hope for your sake that the delay of the weekend … has not led to money being transferred that we then find out about,” senior minister Penny Wong told the opposition benches in the Senate chamber on Monday.

-AAP